Nishimura Hiroyuki of 4chan: a star in Japan, linked to violence in the US

[thomas]

The NYT with a piece on Nishimura Hiroyuki, the founder of the legendary 2channel (2ちゃんねる) and the current owner of 4chan. While seen as a hero by disenchanted young Japanese who feel oppressed by their country's rigid rules, his 4chan website, an anonymous online message board acquired in 2015, is linked to the QAnon movement, Covid vaccine conspiracy theories, mass shooters, and the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

Today, the site's operations are almost entirely opaque. Unlike Mr Poole, Mr Nishimura has only rarely answered questions about 4chan. Its ownership is hidden behind a corporate veil, managed by anonymous moderators bound to silence with nondisclosure agreements. (Mr Nishimura, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and people familiar with the situation, bought 4chan with funding from three Japanese partners for an undisclosed sum.) In October, a report on the Buffalo massacre by the New York State attorney general singled out 4chan, noting that the site "operates outside of the efforts by other online platforms to rein in hate speech and graphic content that contributes to the cycle of white supremacist violence." In a manifesto posted to 4chan, the gunman wrote that he had been radicalized by white supremacist conspiracy theories he had first encountered there. He said his attack was inspired by a video clip on 4chan of the 2019 massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand.
While other sites moved quickly to make it harder to post such content, 4chan did almost nothing, the attorney general's report said. Mr Nishimura doesn't seem to see an issue with that.

While 2channel was sued around a hundred times in Japan (including plaintiff Arudou Debito), 4chan has never been taken to court, according to Nishimura.

More on Mr Nishimura's ventures in the NYT and Wiki articles below:

In the U.S., His Site Has Been Linked to Massacres. In Japan, He’s a Star. (Published 2022)

Hiroyuki Nishimura has become a famous voice for disenchanted young Japanese. What he talks much less about is his ownership of the notorious website 4chan.

www.nytimes.com

2channel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

4chan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org